This Week #7

Friday, May 05, 2017

Greenhouse pottering
I've spent a lot of time in my greenhouse this week, it's old and and in need of some serious TLC but I love it. I'm growing numerous things but sometimes I just sit in there with a cup of tea, sometimes with a book. It's warm, my cats love to join me in there and at this time of year, when the weather can be a little chilly, it allows me to be outside without having to brave the elements.

Knitting
Every once in a while I get the urge to knit. I love knitting Monkey Moo, he knits up super quick and is always loved by his recipient.

Baking
A slightly out of date jar of lemon curd inspired me to pop on my pinny and make some Lemon Curd Thumbprint Cookies (I wasn't about to let a use by date cheat me out of the lemony goodness). They're utterly delicious! It's left me with a hankering to bake more often, perhaps some banana oat cookies...?

Reading
My current read is charming, and one I found via Yarn Along - Sylvia's Farm: The Journal of an Improbable Shepherd by Sylvia Jorrin. I'm really enjoying the short chapters, each a stand alone story of the farm. It leaves me a desire to make the most of each and every single day, to do just one more thing to work towards a goal, and to be happy and grateful with my lot.

Changing my routine
I decided to change my working hours in an attempt to have a little more routine to my days. Now I work in the mornings, I'm at my desk by 8am and finish some where between noon and 1pm.

The afternoons are mine. This is when I get my housework done, or I potter in the greenhouse, maybe read for an hour, write my meal plan, bake, go for a walk. It feels nice to know that after lunch I can ignore the emails and focus on everything else that life entails.

Before doing this, I had a 'just quickly' mindset, where I'd just quickly pop some washing on, just quickly run the vacuum around, just quickly nip outside and water the plants. I found that I'd 'work' a full day but rarely get more than half a days work done.

If I need to work into the afternoon then I do but I find this way I can concentrate on the task in hand. I feel like I'm achieving more each day. Multitasking has it's place but day-to-day I'm finding it's better to focus on one thing at a time.

Also
Having a bit of a bee moment. Thanks to Instagram I was alerted to a rather delicious sounding coconut and pear lip balm, it's limited edition and for each one sold 5,000 wild flower seeds are planted. Isn't that lovely? I purchased three (they're as nice as they sound), and gave one to my Mum.

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12
comments

The Burts Bee thing sounds good!!! Glad you have got some good things like sorting out your working day and the green house and using out of date stuff! I've been doing a lot of using Out of date things recently!

I don't often take much notice of best before dates - if it looks OK, and smells OK then I'll eat it :)I love Burt's Bees and 10% of everything you buy goes to the British Bee Keeping Association. I'm thinking of sponsoring a beehive, you can buy a pack for £30 from their website.It's been a lovely week really, switching my working hours means I get more done and life feels a little calmer too!

I'm an earlier riser, too. I'm far more productive first thing in the morning and the prospect of having the afternoon free to crack on with fun stuff makes me race through the grown-up chores far more quickly!I'd love a greenhouse. How lovely to have one even if it's old. xx

I have to be an early riser being married to a farmer, but I have discovered that it's my most productive time of day.I am very lucky to have a greenhouse, it's a good size too, one day I'll replace the broken glass, and restore it to it's former glory, it's one of my favourite places to potter or sit and while away the hours

How I'd love to have a greenhouse, and I'd use it for the same purposes as you! Your schedule would be perfect for me too, as I'm also an early riser and at my best in the mornings. My husband, who is retired, is the same: he does everything he needs to do in the mornings, and spends the afternoons doing things he loves. xxx

I definitely have to 'timetable' my life whether at home or work, or nothing gets done. Unfortunately I have only about an hour a day free time after work and parenting/at-home-work, and I have to be very strict about not wasting it staring into space or doing mundane tasks.

I don't work but I still like structure to my day, I get all my jobs done on a morning and then I know I've got the afternoon to myself. I think you'll find you get more done when you split up your day in to work and home. Monkey Moo is very cute, I'm sure the recipient will be very pleased with him.

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